In 1964, a small group of African American men in Jonesboro, Louisiana, formed an armed self-defense organization to protect movement workers from vigilante and police violence. Lance Hill offers the first detailed history of the Deacons for Defense and Justice, who grew to several hundred members and twenty-one chapters in the Deep South, and led some of the most successful local campaigns in the civil rights movement. He constructs a compelling historical narrative of a working-class armed self-defense movement that defied the entrenched nonviolent leadership and played a crucial role in compelling the federal government to neutralize the Ku Klux Klan and uphold civil rights and liberties.

About the Author
Lance Hill is adjunct professor of history at Tulane University. Contact the author by email at lhill@tulane.edu.

Reviews
"An impressive account.... [A]lso a forceful... challenge to the shelfful of civil rights histories that tell a story in which nonviolence was indeed an essential and defining quality of the Southern movement's success.... An important corrective to popular simplifications." - David J. Garrow, Chicago Tribune "Hill has done a service by rescuing the Deacons from oblivion." - The Nation"



Book Information
ISBN 9780807857021
Author Lance Hill
Format Paperback
Page Count 400
Imprint The University of North Carolina Press
Publisher The University of North Carolina Press
Weight(grams) 593g